The
core module of the Mir
space station, which means "peace" and "world" in
Russian, starts its orbital journey on February 20, 1986. The station's
first crew, Leonid Kizim and Vladimir Soloviev, literally shuttle their
Soyuz T-15 spacecraft to Salyut-7, the Mir's predecessor, work there and
then return back to Mir.

The
Kvant-1 module, a first addition to the station,
joined Mir in April after a dramatic docking saga. When the new module
fails to achieve a complete docking with Mir, the station's residents
Yuri Romanenko and Alexander Laveikin walk outside the station to check
for problems. They found and successfully removed and bag of trash stuck
in the docking port, which was prevented the docking. In
July Syrian "guest" cosmonaut, Mohammed Faris, spends a week
onboard Mir.

Bulgarian
Alexander Alexandrov and Afghan Abdul Ahad Mohmand visit Mir for a week
as "guest" cosmonauts during 1988. In the meantime, below on
Earth, in Baikonur, the thousands of workers, soldiers and technicians
are finishing a monumental task of preparing the Buran reusable spacecraft
for the first test run into orbit. The second test flight of the Buran,
if it ever happened, would involve docking with Mir. In
December, a French veteran astronaut Jean-Loup Chretien spends a month
on Mir and becomes the first non-US, non-Russian space traveler to venture
outside the spacecraft.

After
a four-month break in manned operations due to the damage of the Soyuz
spacecraft in Baikonur, the Mir is inhabited again in September. In
December, Mir is "upgraded and improved"
with a 19-ton Kvant-2 module, which among
other things brings a large airlock to the station and a maneuvering unit
for spacewalking cosmonauts.

During
two of their five spacewalks, cosmonauts Alexander Viktorenko and Alexander
Serebrov flew a backpack-style maneuvering unit, which allows "untethered"
floating in space. Due to Mir's inability to maneuver to pick up the cosmonaut
in case his "backpack" fails, both crewmembers remain tethered
during the tests. They would need no tether in the presense of the Buran. In
December, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) journalist Toyohiro Akiyama
reports on Mir operations "from the scene" during his visit
to the station.

As
the Soviet Union collapses underneath, Mir's cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev
agrees to stay for a second term onboard Mir to make possible a politically
important visit of Toktar Aubakirov, a cosmonaut from newly independent
Kazakhstan. However, the US media, portray Krikalev as a stranded cosmonaut,
unable to return home due to the collapse of the Soviet Union. On
the same mission which brought Aubakirov, an Austrian researcher Franz
Viehboeck visits Mir. In
May, a British passenger, Helen Sharman, visits Mir on a privately financed
mission.

In
March, Klaus Dietrich Flade, a researcher from recently unified Germany
visits Mir. He is not the first German to fly to the Russian space station
though. 14 years before, a cosmonaut from East Germany had spent a week
onboard Salyut-6. In
August, the French astronaut Michel Tognini visited Mir. During three spacewalks in September, cosmonauts Anatoly Soloviev and
Sergei Avdeev "crowned" recently built Sofora truss with a propulsion
unit delivered onboard Progress cargo ship.

On
February 4, the Progress M-15 cargo ship separated from the Mir space
station and at the distance 230 meters deployed a giant foil-thin screen.
It was known as Znamya-2 or "banner" experiment. The Russian
creators of this fantastic technology claimed it could be used in the
future for illuminating starving for light cities beyond the Arctic Circle.
Many observers also said it has been the first test of the so-called solar
sail propulsion. Numerous observers on Earth see Znamya, even after it
was discarded from the Progress.

On
January 8, the Soyuz TM-18 spacecraft blasted off toward Mir with a crew
of three including medical specialist Valery Polyakov. As his crewmates
returned to Earth in July, Polyakov remained onboard Mir until March of
1995, which is long enough to make a trip to Mars. He established an absolute
record for human presence in space on a single mission - 438 days. In
October, Soyuz TM-20 delivered to Mir a three-member crew including Elena
Kondakova, who spends 169 days in space (a record for a female) and German-born
researcher from European Space Agency Ulf Merbold, who in November 1983
participated in the first Spacelab mission onboard Shuttle Columbia.

NASA
astronauts become long-term guests onboard Mir, with the launch of Norman
Thagard in March onboard Soyuz spacecraft from
Baikonur. In anticipation of joint US-American
operations on Mir, the station is reconfigured and grows by one
module. In
July, the US Space Shuttle docks to Mir for the first time. It picks up
Norm Thagard and two Russian cosmonauts for a ride home. In
September, the Soyuz TM-22 delivers a crew of three to Mir, including
European astronaut Thomas Raiter, who spent 179 days in space.

A
decade long construction of Mir concludes with the arrival of the Priroda
module to the station on April 26. With its successful docking, no
"vacancies" remains on the core module's
docking ports. On
March 24, the US astronaut Shannon Lucid boards Mir for what turned out
to be a 188-day mission, a longest space flight for a NASA astronaut.
In September, John Blaha replaces Lucid as NASA representative onboard
Mir, completing a 118-day mission.

In
the midst of the Russian-American joint operations on Mir, the station
went through the worst year in its history marked by a
fire and a collision with a cargo ship. These accidents soured forever
the relationship between NASA and Russian Space Agency, while US media
made Mir a favorite subject for attacks and ridicule. Despite
problems, during the year, NASA astronauts Jerry Linenger and Mike Foale
log 122 and 134 days in space respectively.

Two
last missions of American astronauts David Wolf and Andy Thomas to Mir
turn into a public relations nightmare for NASA. The agency Director Dan
Goldin had had to "certify" Mir as "safe," before
he authorized Wolf's 119-day mission to the station. As
Andy Thomas had returned from Mir after a 130-day mission, the last US
visit to Mir, NASA pressed Russian government to deorbit the station as
soon as possible. On
November 20, the Proton rocket boosted into orbit the Zarya space tug,
the first element of the International Space Station, opening a new page
in space exploration. Yet, RKK Energia, the Mir operator, continues struggle
to keep the aging station alive.

With
a flow of US cash evaporated, the future of the Mir space station remained
in limbo. When all efforts to raise private funds for future missions
prove futile, RKK Energia does not send a replacement crew to the 27th
expedition, which lands on August 28. Yet,
during their expedition to Mir, cosmonauts Viktor Afanasiev and Sergei
Avdeev perform perhaps the most spectacular experiment onboard Mir, deploying
a giant umbrella-like antenna outside the station. The
French cosmonaut Jahn Pierre Haignere accompanied his Russian colleagues
during 188-day mission, while Slovakian researcher Ivan Bella spent a
week on Mir in February.

At
the beginning of the year, a group of US businessmen announces a creation
of MirCorp with the goal of "privatizing" Mir operations. MirCorp
is able to finance a single 72-day mission of Alexander Kaleri and Sergei
Zaletin to Mir, while trying to sell "joy rides" to the station.
Although a few potential "customers" make headlines during the
year, their contributions is not enough to keep the aging station operational.
As the first Russian-American crew prepares to take residence onboard
the International Space Station in October, RKK Energia decides to terminate
Mir's flight. Unless an emergency "burial" crew is needed in
2001, Kaleri and Zaletin, who landed on June 16, turned out be the last
people, who lived on Mir.

RKK Energia waits with the Mir deorbiting, until the station celebrates
its 15th anniversary in space on February 20, 2001. The deorbiting maneuver
is planned for the end of February or beginning of March 2001.